For freedom and liberty, low taxes, less government, high social capital, and strong national defense

Saturday, December 30, 2006

Crime And Punishment

The execution of Saddam Hussein is a rare act of justice - most genocides die in their beds. If we want to make the world safe, we need such hangings to be the rule, not the exception.

The other three big post war mass murderers dodged the hangman's noose:

Pol Potkilled up to 3 million Cambodians, was given sanctuary in Thailand and China, then returned home to face a court that sentenced him to lifelong house arrest (the Vatican no doubt deemed this harsh). Just when it seemed likely that he'd face a real trial, he died peacefully in bed.

Idi Amin killed between 80,000 and 500,000 people, was given shelter by our friends the Saudis, and died there after 23 years in exile.

Slobodan Milosevic, was responsible for genocide in the former Yugoslavia. After his defeat, he was unfortunately extradited to the UN's International Criminal Court for a trial that was still going strong after 5 years, when he upped and died.

So a genocidal dictator has a 3 in 4 chance of dodging the noose. A 75% chance of escape is way too high since the only way of deterring genocide is a near certainty that perps will be killed. That's why nuclear deterrence worked during the cold war - the Soviet rulers knew they would be fried if they started a war.

The first step is to define the A list of candidates for the noose. As well as current mass mirderers, this should include intended mass murders. Here's the top four:

Kim Il-Sung, who runs a state based on concentration camps, mass murder, rape and starvation, and has killed about 2 million North Koreans. With nukes he can double that number.

The Hutu leaders of the Rwandan genocide who killed about 1 million Tutsis. The surviving Tutsis are dealing with the retail hatchet men, but the leaders scattered to safe places, including the UK. The Brits have finally decided to extradite four of them, but only if their victims promise not to execute them. So these four are on the list.

When this bunch have swung, there's a B list to work on: the Janjaweed mass murderers and rapists in Darfur; Putin, who slaughtered the Chechens, armed the Mullahs, and is deploying ICBMs to dodge the US BMD on their way to kill Americans; and of course the Chinese thugocrats.

Additional suggestions are welcome, and a future post will suggest how we implement this planetary clean-up.